Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John
Jay College Premieres New Theatrical Work-In-Progress About the Bizarre
Yet True-Life Court Trials of Animals, from Medieval Times to Today

Susan Yankowitz's New Play

'The Tragical-Comical Trial of
Madame P and Other 4-Legged and Winged Creatures' Provides A Unique Spin on
Animal and Criminal Justice for the Finale of John Jay's Annual 'Art of
Justice' Series, November 29 and 30

New York, NY, November 3, 2010
-- O' the glory of the Middle Ages! The Spanish Inquisition, the
boiling-in-oil and the elaborate ritual of bringing animals into court to
try them for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder! The accused
beasts ' cows, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, rats, bees and even termites ' were
provided with defense counsel, held in the same jails as humans, sometimes
given human garb to wear to court and, almost always, sentenced to death by
hanging in the public square.

Interestingly, these strange but true
tales of animals in court continue today in all corners of the globe ' from
France where a Great Dane named Scooby was a courtroom witness during a 1996
murder trial to the 2010 on-camera bust of a talking parrot for acting as
'look-out' for a Colombian drug cartel to the 2009 arrest and trial of a
goat in Nigeria for armed robbery.

A multitude of the most curious
chapters from 500+ years of animal trials will take center stage in late
November at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College with excerpts
from 'The Tragical-Comical Trial of Madame P and Other 4-Legged and Winged
Creatures,' a multi-media phantasmagoria-in-progress by award-winning
playwright Susan Yankowitz. The play is widely interdisciplinary,
engaging themes of animal rights and law, criminal justice, philosophy and
ethics. The concluding event of John Jay's annual Art of Justice
Series, it will be presented on Monday and Tuesday, November 29 and 30 at
7:00pm. The Gerald W. Lynch Theater is located at John Jay College, 899
Tenth Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $10 (free for CUNY students with valid
ID) and may be purchased by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or
visiting www.ticketcentral.com.

Directed by Daniella Topol, this provocative work utilizes actors,
puppets, songs, animation and interactive video to relate actual cases
chronicled in legal textbooks like The Criminal
Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906) and the media,
ones in which a veritable Ark's-worth of species, from mammals to insects,
were prosecuted for vandalism, bestiality and other 'crimes against
humankind.'

Yankowitz's piece is bookended with two scenes
relating the story of Madame P, an enormous sow who was tried for the murder
of an infant in 16th century France, along with her alleged accomplice, a
dog named Lilah. Dressed in human attire for her trial, Madame P is
defended passionately by an assigned attorney, modeled on celebrated 16th
century Frenchman Bartholomew Chassene', who was a pioneer in the legal
protection of animals. The passionate attorney is also seen in the play
defending a group of rats accused of causing famine in a village after they
ate its harvest of barley. In this trial, the attorney made case law
by getting the charges dismissed. His argument? That the defendants
could not be insured safe passage to the court house because the streets
around it were populated by cats! Other seemingly unbelievable
cases from the past that are woven into the narrative include: a swarm of
bees charged with the stinging murder of a young woman in 16th century
Britain; a termite colony that was tried for the destruction of a monastery
in 18th century Brazil and various goats, sheep and horses who were charged
with bestiality. The punishment most often meted out in these cases?
That animal and human 'consecrate' their union in a legal marriage or die
together on the pyre!

The issue of animals on trial is brought into
the current day via another attorney character based on the noted Swiss
lawyer Antoine Goetschel, a renowned animal rights crusader who has a large
practice dedicated to their defense. Many of these modern day cases
are dramatized or presented through video. Among these are the prosecution
of seven dogs in courts in the U.S. and Great Britain, several of which
we're condemned to the death for 'excessive barking' and the impassioned
calls for the trial of a 'serial murdering' orca at SeaWorld this year.
Another video montage documents a series of interspecies weddings ' man and
goat, woman and snake, man and dog, woman and dolphins ' from India to
Israel. Other curious cases that may be finding their way in Yankowitz's
theater work-in-progress are the 1916 decision by a Tennessee court to hang
an elephant that killed its keeper and a 1906 murder case in Switzerland
where two human received life imprisonment and their canine accomplice a
death sentence. But whatever the form, it is amazing to note that all the
events in the play are derived from actual court cases.

'Are such
trials meant to demonstrate man's dominance over 'beasts of the field' as
ordained in Genesis?' asks Yankowitz. 'Or are they sympathetic efforts to
honor all living creatures by enshrining their rights, and meting out
punishment, under the measure of human law? Perhaps questions like these
apply to the trials of any individual or group denied access to civil and
legal rights?

'I expect the play to be thought-provoking, and at
the same time, wild, astonishing, satirical, Bosch-like and funny,'
concludes Yankowitz. 'In its final form, it will resemble a circus, an
art installation, a puppet show and a mystery play, as much as a
conventional theater piece. But then again, this is not the usual
stuff of drama.'

John Jay will look further into this both eternal
and timely subject with a post-performance panel discussion. Speakers slated
for the event include: David Wolfson, New York University Law School
professor and animal rights advocate; Mariann Sullivan, a lawyer and adjunct
professor of animal law at Brooklyn Law School and Cardozo Law School and
Dale Jamieson, Director of Environmental Studies and the new Animal
Initiative Program at New York University.

.Susan Yankowitz has been
creating challenging and imaginative theater seen in venues around the globe
since the 1980s, Among her plays are NIGHT SKY (produced off-B'way and
internationally); PHAEDRA IN DELIRIUM (winner, QRL poetic play competition);
TERMINAL and 1969TERMINAL1996, collaborations with Joseph Chaikin's Open
Theatre (Drama Desk Award); A KNIFE IN THE HEART (Sledgehammer Theatre
2002); and FOREIGN BODIES (finalist, O'Neill Conference 2008.) Her
long monologue about Mukhtar Mai is in continual production in the U.S. and
internationally, as part of SEVEN. The playwright has received numerous
honors including a Guggenheim Award and repeated grants from organizations
including the NEA, NYFA, TCG, the Rockefeller Foundation and Opera America.
For more information, visit playwright, novelist,
www.susanyankowitz.com

Other production participants
include: Joan MacIntosh, Mahira Kakkar and Aaron Krohn (actors); Barry
Holden (lighting) and Nina Yankowitz and Lucjan Gorczynski (video).
Nina Yankowitz's video art has been shown at The Whitney Museum, MoMA, P.S.
1 and many other cultural institutions around the world.

Since
opening its doors in 1988, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater has been an
invaluable cultural resource for John Jay College and the larger New York
City community. Under the new direction of Executive Director Shannon
R. Mayers, the Theater is dedicated to the creation and presentation of
performing arts programming of all disciplines. Its signature series,
The Art of Justice, is the only performance series in New York that presents
a diverse exploration of the role performing arts have played in the pursuit
of social, transitional and criminal justice. The Theater has
collaborated with such noted companies as Epic Theatre Ensemble, Gotham
Chamber Opera, and has also hosted prestigious events for Lincoln Center
Festival, Great Performances, Juilliard, Alvin Ailey and numerous television
specials for HBO and Comedy Central.

About John Jay College of
Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay
College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich
liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 14,000
undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In
teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an
applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation
about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law.
For more information, visit
www.jjay.cuny.edu.